Crom Cruach
Crom Cruach is an Evil Dragon known as the Crescent Circle Dragon and is said to be the strongest Evil Dragon. He was formerly affiliated with the Khaos Brigade's Qlippoth along with the other Evil Dragons. Appearance He has the ability to shapeshift into a human form or a Dragon form. In his human form, Crom Cruach has the appearance of a tall handsome man wearing a black coat with a long mixture of black and blond hairs as well as heterochromatic eyes where his right eye is gold and his left eye is black and he has pointed ears. In his true form, Crom Cruach resembles a majestic jet black Dragon with a black and golden aura surrounding him. Since he has black wings, Crom Cruach is a Western Dragon. Personality Unlike the other Evil Dragons, Crom Cruach appears to be calm and quiet as he usually leans on nearby walls when on standby. He also appears to put his objectives first as, despite his love for battles, he was willing to leave after ten minutes when he was only told to hold off his enemies. He also seems to have a much greater amount of self-control since he backed down after Issei refused to fight due to exhaustion.Volume 18, Next Life As noted by Vali, Crom Cruach is even more of a battle maniac than he is and spent all the years he was absent training between the human world and the Underworld. When fighting, Crom Cruach prefers to fight alone, getting angry if an outside combatant interferes with his battle. He has also a very strange demeanor, such as not repeating his words more than twice as is seen when Issei asked him in Volume 20, and also tends to not answer a direct question or order if he deems it to not matter, and will answer in silent response. Crom Cruach also has an extremely merciless side which is what earned him an infamous reputation as an Evil Dragon as shown when he ruthlessly brutalized Niðhoggr after the latter attacked Ophis. Despite all of these traits, he has a honorable and respectful nature befitting that of a true Dragon, even though he is an Evil Dragon just like Apophis and Azi Dahaka, due to his hatred of dirty and nasty tactics and tricks as, during his intervention against Niðhöggr through the DxD Gremory group, he states that he will relentlessly and ruthlessly beat him up until his consciousness fades. Tannin also noted that out of all the Evil Dragons, he is the purest one despite being called the most evil out of all of them, because he lived for many centuries and Crom Cruach's eyes have seen many things including the vast changes in the history of the human world which, in turn, have changed Crom Cruach's views. He also can appraise and praise his opponent as he did with Fafnir and Asia for her bravery to stand against him and her courage making him feel deeply honored. History In the past, Crom Cruach was controlled by Balor, the Evil God from Irish Mythology. After Balor was defeated by Lugh, Crom Cruach went around to observe the human world and the Underworld as part of his training and experience. Afterward, he left the land where he resides due to finding the intrusion of Christianity an annoyance. Sometime during his training, he met and joined Rizevim Livan Lucifer's group in order for him to be able to fight strong foes and see the place where Dragons would reach at the end. Plot The Legend of Oppai Dragon and his Lively Companions Crom Cruach first appeared in Volume 16 where he was introduced by Marius Tepes as their bodyguard. When the extraction of the Holy Grail started, he commandeered Grendel's fight and fought against Issei with his True Queen and Vali with his normal Balance Breaker and was able to successfully stall them for 10 minutes without taking any major damage. In Volume 18, Crom Cruach took part in the invasion of Heaven. Unlike Walburga and Ladon, he only fought casually, only doing enough to fulfill his role. It was only when he fought against Issei while he was in True Queen mode that he became interested. He was winning the fight, but Walburga entered the fray. The two argued and Crom Cruach lost the will to continue the fight. He walked away, telling Walburga that she was on her own. He was then challenged to a fight by Dulio Gesualdo, which he happily accepted. He later arrived at the site of Issei's battle with Rizevim Livan Lucifer alongside Dulio Gesualdo. When Rizevim called for him to retreat with him, he wordlessly refused. Right before leaving Heaven, he questioned Issei about whether is he a Devil or a Dragon, challenging Issei to another fight in order to see his dreams on the end of the Dragons but was refused by Issei who asked him to wait until he had fully recovered. When asked whether he was still with the Qlippoth, he denied it and left. Crom Cruach visited the Hyoudou Residence in Volume 19 to deliver the egg of a Specter Dragon to repay a debt of gratitude to Tannin as he gave him food and shelter. After meeting Ophis, Crom Cruach challenged her to a fight but she replied that she cannot as she promised to Issei that she wouldn't fight and when asked if there is any way around, Ophis replied that she doesn't know. In Volume 20, Crom Cruach is seen observing Ophis as she takes care of the Specter Dragon egg. He accepts some bananas from Asia. Then, after Asia tells Issei about Fafnir's current state, Crom Cruach tells them not to worry because Fafnir is a Dragon King and that he is strong enough to survive Rizevim's vicious attack. He is present to watch the security footage of Niðhöggr's intrusion into the Hyoudou Residence. When Issei angrily asks him why he did not get there sooner, he responds that he's only there to observe Ophis and does not say any more than that. During the surprise attack on Agreas, Crom Cruach stops Issei and Rias from fighting Niðhöggr. He then punches Niðhöggr, telling him next time that he would not let anyone interfere with his observation of Ophis. When Issei apologizes to him and tries to bow to him, Crom stops him, telling him that a Heavenly Dragon should not bow to an Evil Dragon. Issei and Asia watch as Crom turns into his enormous dragon form. In Volume 21, Crom Cruach and Cao Cao arrive together at the war zone in Japan siding with D×D's army to fight against Qlippoth's army of Evil Dragon's, fake Scale Mail's and a body of Trihexa controlled by Apophis. Red Dragon Emperor of the Blazing Truth × White Dragon Emperor of the Morning Star: The True Dragon(s) of the Kuoh Academy In Volume 22, Crom Crauch joins Rias Gremory's peerage as her Pawn under the alias of "Mr. Black" for the Rating Game World Tournament. In Volume 23, after having won continuous victories, their next Rating game match was against an Ultimate-Class Devil, Crom Cruach reveals his identity to the public and completely demolished the field with his fist, he even dealt some damage to the opposing teams King. Eventually their opponents were being defeated one by one, forcing the Ultimate-Class Devil to surrender victory to Rias' team. Crom appeared in Volume DX.4, where he reminded Rias of their contract and he came to get more bananas. Akeno leads Crom to the basement not before Rias telling him about Ophis being there. In Volume 24, the Gremory teams next match was against the members of Vali's Team at the Fafnir Stadium under the Board Collapse rules, where the field will begin to collapse starting from both ends. When Vali had come over to his and Rias current position, he personally fought with him without needing a promotion. Without any hesitation, Crom made the first move to charged straight towards Vali with his right arm transformed into that of a dragon’s large claw whilst coated in an unbelievably dense aura, Vali however was able to dodge the attack where the aura alone destroyed several skyscrapers in its way. The two then engaged in a fierce melee battle in mid-air, exchanged blows at high speed, throwing in all sorts of moves in that generated immense vibrations and booms in the air that also caused the entire atmosphere to tremble. Crom mocked Vali for only dodging his attacks but the young man retorted saying that he wanted to see the attacks of the so-called strongest Evil Dragon first, Crom then pulled back temporarily to express how proud he was that an evil Dragon like him could fight against a silvery-white dragon Vali and that he had no regrets over it. Their fight continued with Vali this time firing a bombardment of Demonic Energy that Crom repelled with his fist, sending them flying off towards the surrounding buildings. Crom Cruach then spewed forth flames which covered the entire sky to which Vali responded by attempting to counter them with his Compression Divider but it proved to be unaffective as he was hit by the flames. Crom then dived into the scorching fires to continue to assault Vali amidst the inferno of searing flames. Vali's silvery-white aura was used to blow away the flame but Crom Cruach still continued his assault on Vali as his armor melted from the flames and continued to crack from the Evil Dragon's blows, so he struck a blow of energy at Crom to momentarily retreat. However, Crom Cruach grabbed onto him with his other arm that had been transformed into a large Dragon's claw and thrust it straight across. With no means of escaping, Vali was forced to endure the attack that caused him to be propelled backwards through various skyscrapers. Despite being worn out and gasping for air, Vali still flew immediately out of a collapsed building to stand before Crom’s eyes and expressed how honored he felt to fight him just before activating his DxD armor. Crom was still able to hit Vali and deflect his attacks towards buildings despite his abnormally increased speed. Crom continued to pursue him while all Vali could do was gather aura to his arms to block; he then asked the Evil Dragon how was he able to hit him, to which Crom simply replied Intuition. Crom then spewed out flames much fiercer then before. This time, however, Vali used his Satan Compression Divider which allowed him to completely erase the flames and then sent his Wyvern Fairies towards Crom to continuously use his Half Dimension on him which restricted his movements. Still determined, Crom gritted his teeth to the point of bleeding and attempted to advance forward until he broke free by destroying all of Vali's wyverns one after the other. Vali continuously bombarded him with his absolute aura, but Crom continued to fly straight towards him without signs of evading as a massive explosion went off upon contact, of which Crom then emerged from the smoke to thrust another punch at him and let loose a mouthful of flames, breaking and singeing his helmet and right wings respectively. Vali unleashed a blast of demonic energy directly at Crom’s abdomen causing another explosion and then flew back augmenting their distance. Crom Cruach’s body was covered and dripping in blood but his fighting spirit hadn’t decreased at all. Rather he had become even more motivated which made Vali laugh and then they both made an oath to each other to continue fighting until the very end, although their fight had ended due to Rias' situation which forced her to surrender, leaving the winner Vali and his team. As a result, both Crom Cruach and Vali were completely battered and upset that their battle had come to an abrupt end. Vali then approached Crom and extended his hand out for a handshake, to which Crom smiled as he brushed Vali’s hand aside and flew over to Rias. In Volume 25, Crom participated in the training ground held by Ajuka Beelzebub along with his team and Issei’s team. During training, Crom acted as a substitute for Issei and told Bova Tannin the environment they were in wouldn’t pose any problems even he were to go on a rampage of which Bova agrees, albeit in an exhausted state. Crom and his team celebrates at the Hyoudou Residence along with the rival teams. As he was eating meat, Crom told Issei he wants to fight him and Ddraig in order to satisfy himself in the tournament to which Ddraig fearlessly agrees. Crom appeared at the end of True Volume 1, where he and his team arrived at the Agares territory for the tournament announcing the next matches where they learned their next opponent is Issei and his team. Crom joyfully told Issei and Ddraig that he’s been training ever since Ddraig was revived and for the sake of defeating them. In True Volume 2, Crom and his team traveled to the Oppai Dragon Stadium in the Gremory territory for their match against Issei and his team. Crom asked permission to Rias of wanting to fight Fafnir and she gives her permission, while also instructing him to take down Asia. Crom was thanked by Asia for letting Xenovia and Irina go and he shows his respect towards Asia for standing bravely against him and recalls about the team having difficulty about fighting Asia and later told Fafnir that he plans to defeat Asia because of the order he received from Rias, which causes Fafnir to enter his Outrage mode and begins to fight against each other. The fight between Crom and Fafnir became fierce as they destroyed house around the area as they exchange punches and uses his fists, aura, and flames to fight him and later deflected all of Fafnir’s attacks and blows him away with his pure strength. Crom became cautious when Fafnir summons his mini shelves and they latched onto him and they began to bite and scratching him in the progress, unleashing a large amount of aura to get them off. He started to use his dragon fire to take out the remaining mini Fafnirs and engulfed the real Fafnir with his flames and fired his aura bullets at the dragon and Asia. But Crom was bitten by Fafnir because of his willpower to protect Asia and he became happy that he managed to break his arm and praises for fighting till the end and noticed Asia is standing bravely against him, admiring her resolve, Crom became honored to fight against Asia and Fafnir as he defeats and retires his opponent. Crom appeared at Issei’s location after he defeated Yuuto in their fight, with Ddraig laughing after seeing his arm was broken by Fafnir and Crom calling it a honorable wound he received by the great Dragon King and he’s enjoying this tournament. After Ddraig’s manifestation, Crom was asked by Ddraig if he should hold back because of his wound, but Crom wants to fight in his best condition because of the honorable wound and enveloped himself in a vast amount of dragon aura, and Ddraig agrees to it as the dragon’s battle is about endurance and the two dragons introduced himself as they challenge each other. Before they fight, Crom asked Ddraig if he wanted to fight against him in his original form, shocking the Heavenly Dragon and puts a smile on his face that a legendary Evil Dragon like Crom would say wonderful things and they started to clash by charging at the same time and collided with each other, causing a powerful shockwave that reached the houses below them and destroyed the window panes of the buildings as they head-butted each other. They began to exchange punches and even though Ddraig managed to punch Crom, he unscathed and didn’t falter or got blown away as he continued to fight and return the punch to Ddraig. They began to punch each other at the right cheeks, left cheeks, nose, mouth, eyes, forehead, and the jaws, and Crom continue punch Ddraig even after he enhanced his own punches with Boost, causing multiple violent shockwaves created by the rush of plain punches that destroyed the buildings on the ground. Crom and Ddraig felt happy of their fight and started to gush out blood from their nose and mouth, Crom was grabbed by Ddraig’s giant hand and planning throw him, but uses his strength to pried open Ddraig’s fist to escape, much to his shock. As Ddraig tried to do a headbutt once again, Crom evaded his attack and kicked him in the gut and headbutted Ddraig in his jaw that nearly made him lose consciousness and later Crom cross out of his arms and tried to guard against Ddraig’s punch, but the shockwave damaged the very core of his body gushed out blood and breathed heavily because of the brutal attack made by Ddraig’s Pentrate-enhanced punch. Crom made his arm turn gigantic to extinguish Ddraig’s flames and inflated his stomach and tried to breathe his flame with Ddraig responding by breathing his flame and Crom’s flames proved to be more powerful as it slowly forced Ddraig’s flame back, despite enhancing them with boost. Crom stopped his flames after Ddraig began using his Penetrate to heighten flames and evaded the raining fire that set the buildings on the ground ablaze. After Ddraig realize that his attacks only destroyed the game field, Crom was rammed in the front by Ddraig while using Penetrate and sent him to the ground and Crom got up by jumping to his feet and took a distance from Ddraig’s diving kick and leaped to kick Ddraig’s right arm, thus breaking his arm. As Ddraig started to fire aura bullets, Crom started to deflect them with his right arm and forced both arms when Ddraig continued to fire aura bullets, but because the injury on his left arm, there were times when he lagged a little bit, resulting in the aura hitting his body. Ddraig used his Penetrate on his bullets and successfully injured Crom that causes heavily breathe heavily and dodge all of Ddraig’s Penetrate-infused aura bullets, shocking Ddraig about Crom Cruach’s ability to adapt and respond. Crom’s face was covered in blood and laughed that Ddraig was warming up and told him that he was fine using his Blazing Inferno of Scorching Flames on him, but Ddraig told him he doesn’t mind using it on a dumb fool that he hates, causing Crom to laugh that Ddraig doesn’t hate him and take it as a compliment and they continue to attack each other. As they were about to punch each other, the commentary announced the retirement of Rias and Gasper, leaving Crom and his team defeated in the match. Acknowledging his team’s defeat, Crom took a deep breath and picked up his coat and asked Ddraig if Issei has mature yet as he looked at the direction where Issei fought against Rias, which Ddraig told him that Issei is a miraculous creature that has both Ophis’s and Great Red’s power, with only Ophis’s power that manifested. Ddraig asked Crom if he wants to fight against Issei, which he revealed he wants to fight him, but he wishes to watch over him and with Ddraig telling that other individuals like Azazel, Ajuka Beelzebub, Sun Wukong and even Indra are watching over him. Crom revealed that he will fight Issei once he awakens Great Red’s power within him and started to leave the area, not before telling Ddraig that he’s indebted to Tannin, Rias, and Asia and will show up if there’s anything. Crom and Ddraig couldn’t finish their fight as his team lost after Issei defeated Rias in their fight, but managed to give many wounds to Ddraig such as breaking one his arms and his wings were also full of holes. Powers & Abilities Immense Strength: Crom Cruach is said to be the most powerful of the Evil Dragons to the point that he is superior to all the other Evil Dragons including Apophis and Azi Dahaka. After the years he spent on training himself back and forth between the Human world and Underworld, Crom Cruach has supposedly attained power that is on par with the Heavenly Dragons. This was proven when he was able to easily fight against both Issei and Vali, the possessors of the Two Heavenly Dragons at the same time just to stall them. He is so strong that he seemed to force Dulio Gesualdo to use his Balance Breaker, despite the fact that Dulio is forbidden to activate it without permission from Michael. In fact, his strength has surpassed that of the power of the Heavenly Dragons in their primes (albeit in their separate prime conditions). In Volume 23, he unleashed an extraordinary aura blast with a power output comparable to Issei's Infinity Blaster in Pseudo-Dragon Deification, destroying most of the arena field and leaving a colossal hole in the game field barrier. Crom Cruach is also able to fight on par with Vali in his Diabolos Dragon Lucifer form. Vali even mentioned that Crom Cruach could not be defeated even by average God-class beings. In True Volume 2, Crom was able to defeat Fafnir in his Outrage mode without much problem, despite the latter breaking his arm, and went on to fight the Heavenly Dragon Ddraig to a standstill despite the handicap. Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Crom Cruach is immensely well-versed in the art of hand-to-hand combat, being able to fight both Issei in his crimson armor and Vali in his normal Scale Mail at the same time with minimal movements. He was also able to overwhelm Issei in his crimson armor during Qlippoth's invasion of Heaven. Crom can also combine dragon claw attacks and use his dragon aura to increase the power of his physical attacks. Dragon Flames: Crom Cruach can breathe immensely powerful flames. He can widen their range so much that they appear to cover the entire sky, and they are strong enough to melt Vali's Empireo Juggernaut Overdrive armor and break through his Compression Divider. His flames were able to effortlessly take down Fafnir. His flames have proven to be more powerful than Ddraig’s flames, even though he enhanced them with Boost. Dragon Aura: Crom Cruach can imbue his punches with his dragon aura to further enhance them and can release extraordinary aura blast at his opponents. He can also change the shape of his dragon aura into bullets. Immense Durability: Crom Cruach has shown immense resistance to damage, as he was able to withstand Issei's Crimson Blaster when combined with Ascalon's Dragon Slayer power with only a torn-off wing (even though this was because Issei had only managed to land the blast of one cannon). This is quite a considerable feat as Crom Cruach was never modified to be immune to Dragon Slayers by the Sephiroth Graal. His durability has been vastly enhanced by countless years of training as shown when Crom Cruach could bite down with his dragon mouth to block a replica of Tathlum, a magical weapon that Azazel and Crom Cruach himself stated to be lethal to the Evil Dragon and even him in the past. Yet, despite his immense durability, dragon-slaying abilities can still hurt him, as was seen in Volume 16 where half of his body was gravely burned by Issei's enhanced dragon-slaying Crimson blaster. In True Volume 2 Crom Cruach showed no reaction at all when his arm was bitten and broken by Fafnir. He was capable of enduring the attacks of Ddraig who is renown as Red Dragon Emperor, a Heavenly Dragon of immense power. Immense Speed: Crom Cruach has shown to be extremely formidable in terms of speed as he is able to counter and fend off attacks from Vali who has light speed in his Balance Breaker and Issei who has Welsh Sonic Knight God speed in his Crimson Armor. Battle Intuition: Due to an overwhelming amount of battle experience, Crom Cruach has developed a sense of intuition that allows him to counter opponents who cannot be tracked through usual methods. His intuition is so great that he was able to counter Vali in his Diabolos Dragon Lucifer when he was not able to dodge Vali's attacks or even see him due to his speed. He was also able to distinguish which of Ddraig's aura bullets were subtly enhanced by his Penetrate ability, even as several were fired at him. Stealth Expert: '''Crom Cruach is shown to be able to perfectly hide his presence from another even such as Issei, Rias or Kiba were unable to notice him until was too late or he starts talking himself. '''Shapeshifting: He has the ability to shapeshift from his dragon form to human form. However, according to himself, there's no substantial difference in his battle strength regardless of the form he chooses. Flight: As a dragon, Crom Cruach can fly using his wings. Quotes * "Bananas really are nice things." (Volume 20) Trivia * Crom Cruach has started to have a liking for bananas after Asia gave him one. *Currently, Crom Cruach is the only known major Evil Dragon that isn't either dead or sealed. References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Dragon Category:Evil Dragon Category:Mythological Figures Category:Former Antagonist Category:Khaos Brigade